Rochdale · Private hire · Launching soon
Keep 100% of every fare.
Hail takes no commission. Drivers pay a flat £75 a month, approve every fare, and get paid directly by the rider — cash or card. Nothing skimmed, nothing held back.
The maths
A flat £75. Not a quarter of your income.
Commission apps typically take around 25% of every fare, so the more you work, the more they take. Hail costs the same whether you do ten trips or three hundred.
Illustrative figures. Assumes gross weekly fares as shown, a typical 25% commission on other apps, ~4.33 weeks per month, and Hail’s £75/month subscription (≈£17 a week). At £600 a week, that’s roughly £575 more per month in your pocket — the +£6,300/year figure above is the same maths over 48 working weeks. Figures are before fuel, vehicle and insurance costs, which are yours on any platform. Other apps’ commissions and your earnings will vary.
See the numbers
| Weekly fares | You keep on a 25% app | You keep on Hail |
|---|---|---|
| £400 | £300 | £400 |
| £600 | £450 | £600 |
| £800 | £600 | £800 |
| Monthly cost | ~£650 at £600/wk | £75 flat |
For drivers · How it works
Your car. Your price. Your money.
A request comes in
A rider nearby names their price. You see the pickup, the destination and the money before you commit to anything.
Accept — or counter
Take the fare as offered, or counter with your own price. The rider confirms your counter before you move an inch.
Drive
The price is locked before pickup. No meter running, no surge maths, no awkward conversation at the kerb.
Get paid directly
The rider pays you at the end — cash or your card machine. Hail never touches, holds or routes your money.
+£0
kept in your pocket over a year — the fares you already earn, not extra fares.
Illustrative comparison, not a guarantee of earnings. Based on £600/week gross fares over 48 working weeks: a 25% commission platform takes £7,200 a year, Hail’s flat £75/month is £900 a year. Hail doesn’t change what riders pay you — it changes how much of it you keep. Year one for founding drivers: +£6,375 — first month of the subscription is free.
What you need to drive
Licensed, insured, ready.
Hail is licensed private hire, not a loophole. Three things get you on the road — we check all of them before you go online.
Rochdale PHV driver licence
A current private hire driver’s licence issued by Rochdale Borough Council. Licences from other authorities can’t be accepted yet.
Licensed vehicle
A private hire vehicle licensed and plated by Rochdale Borough Council, with current plates on display.
Hire & reward insurance
Valid hire-and-reward cover. Upload your certificate at sign-up — we verify it and remind you before it expires.
How to join · Five steps, no interviews, no office visits
The apps aren’t out yet. The queue is real.
Hail is pre-launch. Join the founding drivers WhatsApp group and you’ll be first through onboarding when it opens — and you’ll have a real say in how the platform works before anyone else touches it.
Join the founding drivers groupPrefer email? Ask us anything — we reply within one working day.
Rides on your terms.
Name your price, skip the surge, pay your driver — not a platform.
- You name the price. Propose the fare you're happy with. A driver accepts it or counters — you always confirm.
- No surge, ever. The price is agreed between two people before the trip. Rain and rush hour don't change it.
- Pay your driver directly. Cash or card at the end of the trip. Nothing held in between, no hidden fees on top.
- Safety built in. Live trip sharing, one-tap SOS and a saved emergency contact — on every single ride.
- Book ahead. Schedule a trip in advance at your price, and a driver commits to it before the day.
Questions
Yes. Hail takes nothing from your fares — not a percentage, not a booking fee, not a service charge. The only thing you pay Hail is the flat £75 monthly subscription for the driver app.
If you agree a £14 fare with a rider, you collect £14. That’s the whole model.
Directly by the rider, at the end of the trip — in cash or on your own card machine, whichever you take. The fare is agreed in the app before the trip starts, so there’s nothing to negotiate at the kerb.
Hail never holds your money. There’s no wallet, no weekly payout, no waiting for a transfer that arrives on Tuesday.
Everything: the full driver app with live requests and counter-offers, scheduled bookings, unlimited trips with no per-ride fees, the safety toolkit on every trip, document and compliance management, and support from a team that actually knows Rochdale.
Your first month is free, so you can see the work before you pay anything.
The rider and driver apps arrive with launch in Rochdale. Links go live here the moment they’re published.